|
Making a Difference
Andrea Ghez
UCLA Professor, Astronomy
"When I first came to this school, I applied for and received a faculty research grant funded by the UCLA Fund. This grant provided the seed funding for the idea that led to my research focus.
The grant also allowed me to demonstrate that the experiment I wanted to do would indeed work and deserved further funding. My research findings led to an investigation of new infrared technology to view high-resolution images demonstrating the existence of a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy.
While the grant was only a small amount of money, having the funds made the difference for my work. Sometimes, just a little assistance is enough to get faculty going on new ideas that can lead to major discoveries."
Ghez was awarded the 2004 Gold Shield Faculty Prize for Academic Excellence. |
